Theo Walcott has hailed the mental strength at Arsenal as the best he has ever witnessed, and has praised Petr Cech’s influence on the club’s dressing room, after the goalkeeper made a string of excellent saves in the goalless draw away at Stoke City.

“The mental strength in this dressing room’s the strongest it’s ever been. When you have the likes of Petr Cech come into the dressing room as well he just enhances that. He’s a leader in that dressing room as well. He’s lifted everybody’s heads up in that dressing room today saying this is a very good point, no one tends to win here. We’ve just got to look at him because he’s obviously been at the top level and won many things. We all have the belief he’s got that we can push on.”

Cech put in a man-of-the-match performance to record his 10th Premier League clean sheet against Stoke City, coming for crosses with authority and denying Joselu and Bojan Krkic with a fantastic double save. Arsenal also had chances to win the match, with Olivier Giroud twice testing Jack Butland, but the scores stayed level.

“After the Liverpool game, we’re looking back at that and there are two points dropped at Anfield. You always felt here it was going to be a tough match. All the big clubs that have come here have always struggled and they [Stoke] have managed to get a positive result. There were a few mixed emotions in there, to be honest, but it’s probably a positive result reflecting back at the game.

“We felt from the start physically we were up for the fight and the battle and tried to unease them,” Walcott continued. “We managed to do that. It’s a shame we couldn’t get the result we desperately wanted but it’s an improvement from previous performances here. We’ve got to be proud of that point.”

The 0-0 result at Stoke was Arsenal’s second draw in five days, but gave them the point they needed to return to the top of the Premier League on goal difference. Arsenal are tied with Leicester City on 44 points after 22 games, one point ahead of Manchester City and five points clear of north London rivals Tottenham Hotspur, with Manchester United a further two point behind.

“It shows how difficult this Premier League is,” Walcott said. “You can’t tell what’s going to happen this year, it’s just so tight. The amount of teams that could potentially win this league, it’s probably going to be the most exciting Premier League for a neutral ever. No one can call it at this moment in time but we’re top of the league and we can be proud of that.